Ask them to meet you at the site in question to review the trim work. Point out your areas of concern. Remind them that your prices have been based on certain standards of finish work which allowed you to come in, prep, mask, prime & paint, and although you're more than willing to spend substantially more time to correct the trim work before you begin your actual work, you'd respectfully request an adjustment in price to account for the change in overall scope.
GC WORKMANSHIP QUALITY ISSUES-HELP!
Hey All,
Wife of a painter here needing some advise.
We do all the paint work for a GC in our area...have for the last year or so. Up until recently, the workmanship prior to us getting in there was excellent. Drywall guys did a nice job...trim guys did a nice job-all was well.
GC recently hired a new "project manager" and has really upped the # of houses he is building, which is great, but the quality of what they have going in now is HORRIBLE.
We bid these jobs based off the plans for the house by SQ FT, Window count, Door count, and how many colors they plan on doing.
Most recently a house that was "ready" for paint, has trim installed that is unbelievably water damaged...so much so that it is "wavy", there are about 50 "nail holes" in every corner of the trim and doors casings...that quite honestly look more like screw holes they are so big rather than nail holes.
This seems to be getting out of hand....and in my opinion falls back to the manager not "managing" the trades as I would expect.
Just looking for some advise on a good way to handle this professionally without either loosing the work, or having to deny working on homes with all the "fixes" needed before paint.
Wife of a painter here needing some advise.
We do all the paint work for a GC in our area...have for the last year or so. Up until recently, the workmanship prior to us getting in there was excellent. Drywall guys did a nice job...trim guys did a nice job-all was well.
GC recently hired a new "project manager" and has really upped the # of houses he is building, which is great, but the quality of what they have going in now is HORRIBLE.
We bid these jobs based off the plans for the house by SQ FT, Window count, Door count, and how many colors they plan on doing.
Most recently a house that was "ready" for paint, has trim installed that is unbelievably water damaged...so much so that it is "wavy", there are about 50 "nail holes" in every corner of the trim and doors casings...that quite honestly look more like screw holes they are so big rather than nail holes.
This seems to be getting out of hand....and in my opinion falls back to the manager not "managing" the trades as I would expect.
Just looking for some advise on a good way to handle this professionally without either loosing the work, or having to deny working on homes with all the "fixes" needed before paint.
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
Nothing lasts forever - sounds like you had a good thing going but it’s now turned sour.
You need to decide if you can live with dealing with the lower quality, and if so, then set things up to deal with the crap work now being passed on to you so you will be getting compensated for the extra time.
I would say it’s time for a meeting between you two, the GC, and the project “Manager” to either come to a new agreement or decide to part ways.
You need to decide if you can live with dealing with the lower quality, and if so, then set things up to deal with the crap work now being passed on to you so you will be getting compensated for the extra time.
I would say it’s time for a meeting between you two, the GC, and the project “Manager” to either come to a new agreement or decide to part ways.
Stelzer is spot on. A discussion must be had. Had a similar situation years ago. Started with a new contractor whose trim work was pretty good. Once he saw how many boo boos we could fix with our prep, the quality of the trim work went downhill quick. At that point it was time for the talk. For me, if a guy trying to do good work, I will try to make him look better. When he doesn't care it makes it hard for me to.
It's no wonder he couldnt find anything to nail too. His trim is overlapped like a 3/4" on the door box. Lol. The norm is like 1/8". Ask him what gauge of pin he is using in his nailer. That's brutal. It's hard enough filling nail holes on mdf.
Someone who does work like that shown in the photos needs to have their nailer taken away from them. Aside from the obvious safety concerns, I could hand a nail gun to my four year old grandson and expect better work.
That looks like 16 gauge to me, which is complete overkill. The nailing pattern looks like it was done while blind folded.
I think the big ones are trim head screws. Either way, brutal!That looks like 16 gauge to me, which is complete overkill. The nailing pattern looks like it was done while blind folded.
Looks like to me it's a completely different trim subcontractor than what you've been dealing with
Just to build on what Stelzer said, post meeting/discussion and expectations have been set, I’d recommended taking pictures and tracking all time/expenses and potentially charging them out. We’ve been through a few issues with this and it actually led to us moving away from fixed price for a few builders. Want to run a shitty, inefficient job and expect the paint work to be excellent? Sure, but there’s no reason why the painter should have to lose money because of it.
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
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